A camera lucida is an instrument by which the image of an external subject or object can be made to appear upon a working medium, such as, for example, an easel, canvas, a sheet of drawing paper, or the like. Camera lucidas have been extensively employed in the past, for example, by various artisans for simultaneously viewing the virtual image of the subject or object, and the working medium upon which the external subject's image is to be transferred and reproduced, such as, for example, by means of a tracing process. While the prior art is replete with a wide variety of camera lucida devices capable of accomplishing the aforenoted image reproductions, such devices have not been employed in accordance with jewelry fabrication processes whereby the aforenoted external subject's image may be incorporated into particular jewelry ornaments as desired.
A pantograph is an instrument by which an image of a subject or object may be reproduced, the reproduction being manifested either in the nature of an enlargement or a reduction. A pantograph conventionally comprises an arrangement of articulated bars pivotally fastened together, and includes a scribing stylus and a marking or drawing implement, such as, for example, a pen, pencil, or the like. Depending upon the working mediums employed, either the stylus or the marking implement may be operatively associated with the master image to be reproduced while the other element achieves the reproduced image. Similarly, depending upon whether the reproduced image is to be an enlargement of a reduction of the master image, the stylus and marking implement may be interchangeably disposed within the master-image-reproducing and reproduced-image elements of the apparatus.
As in the instance of camera lucidas, while the prior art is similarly replete with a wide variety of pantograph devices capable of accurately reproducing images either as enlargements or as reductions of the original or master images, such devices have not been heretofore employed in connection with jewelry fabrication processes. Accordingly, while particular designs have been incorporated within innumerable jewelry ornaments by means of conventional techniques, such techniques are quite time consuming and expensive. In addition, the designs reproduced within the ornaments by such conventional techniques are necessarily limited with respect to the detail that may be achieved therewithin, and still further, the accuracy and quality of the images reproduced and incorporated within the ornaments is not entirely acceptable.